Why Princess Eugenie's Role in the Royal Family Is Very Different From Prince Harry's

Last week, a petition circulatedthe internet demanding that the royal family pay for the full cost ofPrincess Eugenie's upcoming wedding. Specifically, the campaign, which was started by anti-monarchist group Republic, took issue with the fact that taxpayers will foot the bill for the day's security measures.

Republic would like to see the entire British monarchy abolished in favor of a democratic republic in the UK, but the crux of the group's argument against the public funding of the second royal wedding of the year revolves around Eugenie's role in her family.

"Eugenie carries out no royal duties," the petition reads. "A royal wedding is a private, personal event, dressed up as a national occasion... Taxpayers should not be funding a private wedding, no matter who is getting married."

To outsiders, royal life may look like a blur of garden parties, balcony appearances and meet-and-greets, but internally there is a vast difference between "working royals" (which Prince Harry and Prince William and their wives all are) and non-working royals.

As Republic wrote in the petition, Eugenie does not carry out duties in the Queen's name, and neither does her sister Beatrice. Both women attend various family events such asTrooping the Colourand Christmas church services, but they have their own careers; Princess Eugenie works at an art gallery in London, while Beatrice works for a US-based company called Afiniti.

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Beatrice and Eugenie on the royal balcony at the 2018 Trooping the Colour parade.

The sisters also serve as patrons of a number of charities, but as royal historian Marlene Koenig pointed out, they are doing it on their own, not in service of the monarchy, and neither of the York Princesses has an individual profile on the royal family's website.

In fact, Koenig believes the slimming down of the royal family can, in some ways, be attributed to its scandals of the 1990s, and more specifically, the divorces of both Andrew and Charles, and the unsavory headlines the splits brought about.

"The sins of the parents have rested on the children," Koenig tellsTown & Country. "I do believe that if their parents had never gotten divorced and were in a happily married state to this day, Beatrice and Eugenie would be working."

As it is, Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie will live very different lives—as will their respective spouses, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Eugenie's fiancé Jack Brooksbank.

"In contrast, Eugenie will continue to be a guest at royal weddings and other family occasions but will be expected to continue to pursue her own independent career rather than represent the monarch at official engagements."

Like Koenig, Harris too emphasized the streamlining of the royal family, a trend which will likely become even more severe under Prince Charles.

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"Queen Elizabeth II involved her first cousins in royal duties. The Duke of Kent, The Duke of Gloucester, and Princess Alexandra have all represented the Queen for official engagements," Harris said.

"In subsequent reigns, however, we will see a more streamlined royal family focused on the monarch and consort [the monarch's spouse] and royal children and grandchildren in the direct line. The nieces, nephews, and cousins of subsequent monarchs will be expected to pursue independent careers instead of undertaking official engagements on behalf of the monarch."

But being a Princess with a day job isn't always easy. Princess Beatrice recentlyshared that itcan be "hard to navigate."

"There is no precedent, there is no protocol,” she said in an interview withVogue earlier this summer. “We are the first: we are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and we’re also princesses and doing all of this in the public eye.”